'Educating two generations'

TRACY - One arm keeps the baby cradled, close to the heart, said Pam Cook, a longtime educator who recently taught teen parents how to read aloud to their infants. The other manages the book.

Jennifer Torres

TRACY - One arm keeps the baby cradled, close to the heart, said Pam Cook, a longtime educator who recently taught teen parents how to read aloud to their infants. The other manages the book.

"You'll be an expert at turning pages one-handed," Cook said.

She told the teenagers, almost all of them mothers, that the position wouldn't feel natural at first. Neither would reading to a baby too young to understand the words, or to one who loses interest after just one page.

But keep at it, she said. "It will teach your babies to love reading."

She asked how many of the teens had been read to as young children. Only two raised their hands.

A longtime preschool educator, Cook also is involved with the Bring Me a Book Foundation. The nonprofit organization - Cook's husband, University of the Pacific Professor Emeritus Bob Morrow is its local manager - donates high-quality books to classrooms serving low-income children, and trains parents on how to read to their kids.

One of the organization's most recent stops was at the Tracy Unified School District's Student Teen Educational and Parenting Support, or STEPS, program, which serves teen moms and dads.

According to a report released earlier this month by the California Department of Public Health, teen birth rates across the state have reached a record low - about 32 births per 1,000 mothers ages 15 to 19.

But locally, teenage birth rates remain above the state average: San Joaquin County has a teen birth rate of 41.6.

Research has shown that children born to teenage parents are at increased risk of low academic achievement, and at someday becoming teen parents themselves.

That's one of the reasons Ann Herrington, who directs the STEPS program, has made family literacy a priority for her students.

"We are educating two generations here," she said.

Amber Taylor, 17, attends classes at STEPS while her son, Gabrial, is cared for in an onsite day care room.

Taylor wants to start taking him to the library, she said, and she asked to sit in on Cook's presentation to find out what kinds of books she should pick out for him.